


wrap your little hand around mine

by idlewheel



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: F/M, Future Fic, based on a prompt sent on tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-09
Updated: 2018-03-09
Packaged: 2019-03-28 23:49:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13914801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idlewheel/pseuds/idlewheel
Summary: That night when that baby girl raises her eyes up at her, everything in Amy’s life lines up.





	wrap your little hand around mine

That night when that baby girl raises her eyes up at her, everything in Amy’s life lines up. The sight of her in her arms warms her chest and nothing in her life will ever compare to this moment of pure bliss. It is a moment pulled out of thin air, bright and momentous. Like the morning after her wedding, when she awoke to Jake’s sleeping face and she thought, _finally, here it is_. 

She reads her daughter’s face like astronomical charts. The slight freckles on her cheeks that will grow more prominent with time are interconnected by her eyes. She draws up Pollux and Castor, Ursula, the Big Dipper, but in her heart she knows that the cinnamon color of her daughter’s marks are far more beautiful than those shiny asterisms.

She wants to bury her face into the chubby parts of her wrists, wants to compare her chocolate eyes to the dark night. As she gazes down, her daughter’s eyelids droop and then, in her arms, she falls asleep. 

She wasn’t planning to get pregnant so quickly after the wedding. She had a life plan and Jake respected it, respected her. But, how could she ignore his eyes like warm suns on Nikolaj, on Ava, on her new niece. At first, she convinced herself it was just a bug and took three Advils, went to work and pushed away all thoughts of late periods out of her mind.

But, the thoughts persisted, stinging her mind like relentless hornets and she gave in. So, on her lunch break, she went to the pharmacy and bought a test, hiding deep inside her purse. Thirty minutes before her shift ended, she locked herself in the empty stall. 

What proceeded was thirty minutes of anxious pacing, three almost-puking and four full-fledged freak outs. But, she finally built her confidence and took the test. 

Jake was waiting for her downstairs when she went down almost an hour later. She waited until they were in the car before handing the test over to him. Then, his eyes like lighting sparked and burst. Hers quickly followed. Finally, her heart.

They’d been married three months then and the thought terrified her. She was barely a wife and now, she was going to be a _mother_. There was no thought more terrifying than that; as her stomach grew, so did her terror. When she didn’t see her feet anymore, she cried, but not because of that but because it was all drawing so close.

But, the nine months quickly melted by and now, here her baby is whole and wonderful, full and heavy in her arms. Here she was, the smell of her skin molding her heart like soft wax. 

And here she was, so perfect and calming and not at all what she was expecting.

Because, she isn’t scared, she’s ecstatic. She’s a mother to this tiny human in her arms and she’s so ready to teach her everything she knows. As her little mouth puckers as she sleeps, Amy knows she will never lead her wrong. However, the urge to protect her heightens, the urge to wrap up her heart in a crystalline wrap, light incense to scare away the demons. 

For nothing to ever take any shred of happiness from her daughter.

She doesn’t notice when her husband walks in, his tiptoeing walk as he makes his way over to them.

“She’s still asleep?” he asks, settling down beside her. His hand reaches over and grazes the baby’s rosy cheeks.

“Mhm.”

“Have you looked at the list?” he asks, voice still quiet. She wants to laugh, remembering the famous list.

“Jake, half of them are names of sport cars and the other half are Die Hard characters or locations.”

“Gwyneth Paltrow named her daughter after a fruit.”

“Well, yeah, but she’s famous and we’re not naming our daughter Mazda.”

He sighs and then smiles at her, her favorite crooked smile, the one that pinches up nose slightly. She wants to kiss him. She settles for squeezing his arm.

“How about Astrid?”

She thinks it over, fingers trailing down to his hand, where he tightly wraps her hand around his.She scours her brain for any Die Hard references with Astrid or any cars named like that. All she remembers is old Viking myths referring to Astrid and Astrid, queen of Norway and princess of the Swedes.

With a name like Astrid, with a heart of stone, daughter of the vikings and queen of Norway, she should be protected.

“I like it.”

“Good.” he grins wider now and leans in. “It’s from that show on the History Channel.”

She sighs, she should’ve known. Still,she leans into him, bringing their daughter closer.

The door opens with a start and they jump away, Amy hugs Astrid closer to her chest, startled. Astrid’s little eyebrows furrow in her sleep.

But it’s just Charles, with Rosa trailing after him. She should’ve known she wouldn’t be able to keep him away much longer. She could hardly keep him away during her pregnancy but now there was an actual being that shared half her DNA with Jake and half with her.

Charles was never going to stay away.

She’s surprised as his tiptoeing and but his big grin does not surprise her. The door closes after Rosa, quietly.

“Hi, Charles.” Jake greets, the hand holding hers loosening and rising to stroke the baby’s head. Newly-named Astrid fumbles in her sleep, eyebrows twisted up together. Amy wonders what she’s dreaming about. Are her dreams filled with Amy’s eyes or Jake’s smile?

Perhaps, she’s dreaming of being inside of Amy’s womb, the warmth and the calamity gone for chaos and wide blinking faces over hers. Dreams of how she was thrown into Earth like a tidal wave throwing her onto the seaside, brine and seaweed stuck to her legs, tangled like entrails.

“Hey.” Rosa says, holding a bouquet of assorted colorful flowers awkwardly in her arms. Charles walks over to the edge of the bed, stares down at Astrid.

“How’s my little niece?”

“Sleeping.”

“Here. These are yours from everyone.” Rosa says, handing the roses to Jake, who takes them in his arms and sets them next to the big teddy bear her brother dropped of earlier. Charles’ face is as brightly lit as a star.

“You want to carry her?” Amy asks, knowing the answer. Charles nods widely. With the help of Jake, they slowly leave her in his arms and his smile grows even wider. Amy knows that there’s another person on Earth that will never steer her wrong.

“Wow, I can already see that she takes after you Jake.”

“How?” Rosa asks from the edge of the room, arms crossed. “She’s like twelve hours old.”

“She has good hair.” Boyle says grinning widely. Amy rolls her eyes at the slight snub. “And, I’m her uncle, I can kind of read these kind of things.”

“Right.” Amy replies. After a moment of Boyle carrying her, Amy gets antsy for the feel of her in her arms. She quietly squirms on her bed, watching as she lies in Boyle’s arms. In the twelve hours of Astrid’s life, she’s spent ten of them in her’s or Jake’s arms. Now, her arms call out for her weight.

Jake notices the look on her face, the pinch of her brow and the discomfort on her face.

“Here, I think Amy should hold her.” Jake cuts in, transferring her from Boyle’s arms into his own. His eyes don’t leave her tiny face as he hands her over to Amy.

“She’s cute.” Rosa adds, slightly surprising Jake. Jake, who nods and clears his throat. She can see the thinly veiled emotion in Jake’s eyes and she urges to kiss him. She’s never felt so close to him more than she has in this moment.

Amy feels whole again at the touch of her daughter’s blanket touching her arms and she nuzzles her closer. 

“Told you she takes after Jake.” Boyle sing-songs.

“Have you chosen a name?” Rosa asks.

“Astrid.” Jake says.

“After the Swedish queen.” Amy adds before Jake adds she’s named after a TV character.

“Cool.” Rosa adds. “Also after that character from that show?”

“Yes.” Jake says proudly. Amy hides her smile.

Boyle clears his throat, hands clapping, making Jake jump from his wide-eyed gaze on Astrid. 

“Okay, Jake. So now that you’ve joined the ‘dad club’ I have some things to teach you…”

Jake nods along as Boyle speaks, his nods not encouraging, eyes glued like magnets to his daughter. Astrid awakes then, eyelids drooping open. Amy wants to play this moment forever, being the first thing her daughter sees, being the one that holds her in her arms. 

In this world filled with hardship, Amy craves to keep her here, wills her not to grow up and get her heart broken, cry, feel any pain.

Jake drifts away from Boyle, knowing his daughter to be awake, despite the absence of noise. Boyle’s voice slowly drifts and his eyes soften. Even Rosa draws close, the scowl on her face now slight annoyance with a fleck of emotion.

Two dark heads, Jake and Amy, crowded together in vast wonderment at their daughter. Two shared lives, now impacted by this tiny twelve-hour old being. Two souls, intertwining and living within Astrid.

Rosa looks away at their shared emotion, as if a flashlight was lighted in her face. Even the stars hide in the night sky.

Boyle, however, shakes his head and softly says, “Well, what are you listening to me for? You guys are going to be great parents.”

**Author's Note:**

> It's been super hard for me to get into this writing headspace lately. All I've written for weeks are essays and midterms this week and I just want sleep. But, I've been rereading my old fave book and this sprung out of me out of an old request sent to my tumblr.  
> I hope you guys like it and tell me what you thought in the comments!  
> [My Tumblr](http://www.idlewheelposts.tumblr.com)


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